Iâ€™m looking to get a new hdd for storing high quality audio and audio programs (Iâ€™m an audio programmer)
Iâ€™m looking a at a 60/80gig Westerndigital, Seagate or Maxtor which is the best?
Iâ€™m leaning towards westerndigital is that the right thing to do?

I’ve had nearly every brand of HD fail on me. There doesn’t seem to be one that is more dependable than the others. I just had a Seagate 160 fail after 6 months, and the replacement I bought was dead on arrival!

In very general terms, the 2 platter drives seem to have more reliability and noise issues.

If you want speed, the WD Raptors are the only non-SCSI drive that delivers true speed, and they are built to last a really long time. Even so, I had a Raptor fail on me due to bad sectors. But the mechanics of the Raptor are seriously heavy duty. Barring platter problems like mine, they will outlast their usefullness.

As far as performance on standard 7200RPM ATA100/133 drives, you won’t notice any difference between them. 8MB cache is a “must-have”.

Yes, you need cooling that’s for sure.
Regarding performance among 7200 rpm drives I don’t really agree with you rdgrimes. You’ll notice quite a difference between a Seagate 7200.7 hdd and a Hitachi 7K250/Maxtor in favor for the Hitachi/Maxtor one.
Keep on mind that 8Mb cache often means extended warranty (usually 3 years) compared to 1 year for 2Mb cache.
//Danne

Performance of PATA HDDs with similar RPM and cache size is pretty much equal among the major brands, as is reliability. I think one of the best ways to single out the best drive for you is to look at how long the manufacturer is willing to warranty it. Look for a 7200rpm drive with 8MB cache and a three-year warranty.

Otherwise, grab a WD Raptor for some nice SATA speed (10,000rpm, 8MB cache, 5-year warranty). If you have the $$$, nothing beats a SCSI, though.

Whatever you decide, stay well clear of the IBM deathstar series. They are spawn of the devil :a

Ugg. I had a 36GB deskstar. Great performer until it started clicking… got my stuff off it, sent it back to IBM, and they sent me an 80GB drive from a newer line. I actually have a 120GB Hitachi I use for downloads. No problems yet.

Thanks guys I really appreciate it. Iâ€™m not to keen with the faster/bigger drives because I havenâ€™t got the $$$ and I donâ€™t tend to do mass file transferring. Just saving audio files and installing about 15 programs. I want quality and reliability.
THANKS

With audio programming you will probably need lots of testing and it may lead to more wear & tear on the HDD. I suggest WD because of their amazing customer care and support. Like already said, everyone at one point or another comes across a popular well known HDD that failed. So get the best thing to back it up, I have never had a problem getting a replacement for a WD. And I tried many diff HDD brands.

Cooling no problem I made an 80x80x130mm fan @40watts and I guess it blows about over 400cf/m. it cooled a severely overclocked AMD 3200 down to 37 degrees
When I placed it on a skateboard it propelled it :o. (Making a bigger one at this moment)
Iâ€™ll go with a wd 80gb 8mb cache i’ll take a chance
THANKS to ALL

I have sold the fan to my friend, I can get some photos and the details, i’ll post it here so check back in about who knows a week I guess to see it.
Iâ€™ll get the wd for now and get a Maxtor for my new machine in a year or so.
THANKS

I like both my Western Digital 160 GB Caviar with 8 mb of cache, and my Western Digital 120 GB USB 2.0 external. They both are quiet and 7200 drives. I also do not own, but repeatedly hear good things about the Samsung drives. I have reviewed both drives on Epinions:http://www.epinions.com/content_131774320260

… whatever I’m using right now. And that’d be a pair of Maxtor Plus9 160GB/8MB , pair of WDSE 120GB/8MB, WDSE 40GB/8MB, IBM 120GXP 120GB/2MB, and WD Raptor 74GB. Also used a pair of Maxtor D740X 20GB/2MB and a pair of the infamouse IBM 75GXP 30GB/2MB. All the pairs ran/run as RAID 0 on Promise FastTrack100 TX in dual channel mode as masters. Never had a problem w/ them, except one of the IBM 75GXP was DOA, and the other I had to RMA when it died a pair later. Serious knock on wood.

Seeing as how none of them really answered your question perhaps I can be of some assistance. Honestly your not going to see much of a difference in any of them. I’ve had all of them at one point and only one died that wasn’t my fault, and it was because of bad sectors. I would, however, make sure that what you are buying in new and not used/refurbished, I’ve had very bad experiences with ones like that. I’d just go for whatever you can find the cheapest. I’d look at www.pricewatch.com for the lowest prices, unless you find a sale.

Most Seagate drives are very quiet, which is important to me at least. They are generally pretty reliable, despite rdgrimes’s experience. That said right now I have two WD 120’s and haven’t had any problems.